#Letters to the Editor — Feb. 9, 2021

The Issue: The Biden administration’s loosening of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

President Biden seems intent on changing his legacy from “winner of the most questionable presidential election” to “worst president ever,” all in only a few weeks (“Undoing Trump immig policy,” Feb. 3).

A lot of kooky ideas have come from the left, but how could any rational leader think it a good idea to admit thousands of unvetted illegal immigrants about whom we know nothing into the country during the COVID pandemic?

It appears that Biden has more concern for his party’s leftist playbook than the health and safety of American citizens.

John Jaffe

Orefield, Penn.

How can we even think allowing in thousands of immigrants (some who have had little or no health care) to this country when we can’t even solve the COVID vaccine fiasco for our own citizens?

From Day 1, we kept hearing the extraordinary numbers of vaccines, but we still are seeing so many being left behind, so many being overlooked, and allowing the more privileged to be vaccinated first, which is a disgrace.

Until you solve this pandemic, you can’t solve other issues.

Sam King

Manhattan

The president is opening up the southern border and stopping construction on the wall. In a tweet, he referenced: “Your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

This is my response: Unfortunately, “the tired, the poor and masses yearning to breathe free” are we who are living in America now.

It’s we 80- and 90- year-olds who can’t get the COVID vaccine yet. Working Americans are having their jobs taken away by the president’s executive orders, landlords can’t collect their rents, business owners are being forced to close, the schools are trying to accommodate the students they have now and everyone is stressed out just trying to stay sane in the midst of the government’s insanity.

As much as I sympathize with the immigrants, how much can America’s middle class take? We need to get our own house in order before taking on even more.

Anne Leonardi

Mastic Beach

With millions of Americans becoming unemployed, the Biden administration is planning to allow thousands of immigrants to enter our country illegally and he is advocating for a $15 minimum wage for all American workers.

Illegal immigrants will be working for fewer dollars paid under the table. Employers will not hire an American for $15 an hour when they can hire an illegal for a fraction of that. Many Americans will be forced onto welfare.

America already allows about 1 million legal immigrants into our country each year. Those here legally must be paid the minimum wage.

Biden’s immigration policies make it impossible for those working here illegally to be treated fairly and it makes it impossible for American workers to determine the course of their lives without government interference.

Rena Ulland

Rice Lake, Wisc.

Biden said: “We’re going to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration’s immigration policy that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families.”

I don’t want to burst your bubble, Joe, but that policy and the so-called cages built to house those entering our country illegally were active by the Obama administration. In case you forgot, you were a part of that administration.

Michael Murphy

Mahopac

Biden has stated that he plans to increase the allowable quota for people wishing to enter the United States to live.

That is not a very plausible nor sensible idea, since the country is still grappling with the pandemic and allowing any additional people into the country during this time could only prolong the pandemic.

Until this medical crisis has been resolved, there should be no one permitted to enter the United States. It is far too risky, given the current critical situation.

John Amato

Fresh Meadows